Category Archives: Arts

Walking into Light, Landscape iPhoneography by Karen Klinedinst, on view at Adkins Arboretum

Posted on June 6, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Adkins Arboretum
RIDGELY, MD
June 6, 2013

Karen Klinedinst “paints” with her iPhone. Each landscape she creates glows with the breathtaking beauty and nuanced details of nineteenth century Romantic paintings. On view at Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through Aug. 2, they capture trees, meadows and waterways in a magical dance of light and shadow. There will be a reception on Sat., June 22 from 3 to 5 p.m. to meet the artist.

“Winter, North Meadow” is one of several works shot at Adkins Arboretum. Light plays across its bending grasses and silhouettes the delicate needles of its pine trees, while white clouds touched with gold spread across a cerulean blue sky. But this is not just a photograph. You can practically see “brushstrokes” in the seed heads of the grasses and the textures of the clouds.

“It’s not straight photography,” Klinedinst explained. “I’m interpreting what I’m seeing. I shoot everything with my iPhone, and I also use the iPhone to process the images by using many different apps. Sometimes they’re made out of multiple images stitched together, then I layer textures and colors until I get them exactly how I envisioned them.”

Printed with archival ink on bamboo fiber paper, “Golden Tree” captures one of her favorite trees growing amid the rolling hills of her family’s land in Pennsylvania. Ghostly textures resembling intricate tree branches or grasses are woven into the image. They create a sense of time and memory and reveal Klinedinst’s deep feeling for the landscape she has visited all her life.

Walking and image-making are Klinedinst’s two great loves, so every weekend she leaves her home in Baltimore to visit parks or mountains. Taking her iPhone along, she photographs the landscape and processes her images right there in the field.

Klinedinst said, “I’m a big walker and I do a lot of hiking, so that’s part of the process of just being there and experiencing and moving through the landscape. And with the phone it’s just so freeing and unencumbered. I don’t have to go back to my studio and sit in front of my computer screen. I can do it there.”

Capturing the feeling of a landscape is all-important for Klinedinst. In “The Advent of Spring,” you instantly feel the primordial stirrings of new life as woodland flowers bloom and skunk cabbages spread their broad leaves along the Arboretum’s winding creek. With shadowed edges reminiscent of a vintage photograph, “Day’s End” has an achingly beautiful clarity and sense of passing time as pale wintry light filters through its bare waterside trees.

A graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art, Klinedinst feels a strong affinity with two schools of art that emerged in the nineteenth century. Reacting to the rise of science and industrialization, Romantic painters focused on the emotional and spiritual power of untamed nature. Pictorialism developed as artists took photography beyond the mere recording of factual images to develop its creative and interpretive possibilities.

Likewise, Klinedinst turns her high-tech iPhone and up-to-the-minute apps into tools for exploring the intangible emotional qualities of the landscape. Like a plein air painter, she works outdoors studying the landscape and its changing moods firsthand. What she brings to light is the magic of our shared relationship with the land, something that most of us don’t take the time to consider as we live our hurried lives.

This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through August 2 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410-634-2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.

Photo: “Winter, North Meadow” is one of Karen Klinedinst’s landscapes, all shot and edited with her iPhone, on view through Aug. 2 at Adkins Arboretum.

“Winter, North Meadow” is one of Karen Klinedinst’s landscapes, all shot and edited with her iPhone, on view through Aug. 2 at Adkins Arboretum. Submitted Photo

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Tree Tricks, site-specific sculpture by Howard and Mary McCoy, on view at Adkins Arboretum

Posted on June 4, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Adkins Arboretum
RIDGELY, MD
June 4, 2013

Walk a few yards into the cool, leafy shade of Adkins Arboretum’s forest and you’ll see something odd. Vines climb high into the trees in a tangle of green, but in one area along the path they’re chopped off right at eye level. The 32 tall pines and young saplings rescued from being choked by vines form a site-specific sculpture called “Cropped.”

Centreville artists Howard and Mary McCoy have created nine sculptures for Tree Tricks, their eighth outdoor sculpture show at the Arboretum. Each is site-specific, inspired by a certain place in the forest. The artists will lead a sculpture walk during the show’s reception on Sat., June 22 from 3 to 5 p.m.

Because the McCoys have been creating outdoor art at Adkins Arboretum every other year since 1999, they’ve come to know the forest well.

“Some of these trees are old friends,” said Mary. “We’ve watched them grow and change over the years. Some have fallen in storms. The forest never stays the same, so it’s always giving us new ideas for sculptures.”

The two artists get not only their ideas from the woods but their materials as well. Fallen branches, dead trees, vines and seedpods all become elements in their sculpture.

For “Bristling,” the McCoys gathered hundreds of small branches and inserted them along the length of a fallen tree so that they look like wildly animated plants sprouting from the decaying wood. Beside another path, a small dead sweet gum tree became a sculpture when they blanketed a section of it with dozens of sweet gum seedpods and titled it “Gum Wrapper.”

“Some of the pieces do have a humorous aspect,” said Howard. “We decided to call the show Tree Tricks because we had a lot of fun with it. We’ve become more and more interested in how our pieces blend with the nature around them and how you have to do a kind of double take sometimes to see—is it natural or is it one of the McCoys’ pieces?”

Change is an important theme for these artists. Whether they’re interrupting the growth cycle by cutting vines away or giving a dead tree “new life” by adding branches to it, the changing seasons and the cycles of birth, growth, death, decay and rebirth are recurring subjects in their work. They’re also interested in the sudden changes brought by unexpected events such as storms.

When a storm uprooted a towering tree last summer and wedged it against a slope with its trunk ten feet above one of the Arboretum’s paths, it formed a kind of gateway into the deep forest. For the McCoys, it was an invitation to make sculpture. Since the tree was a sweet gum, they fastened a long line of gumballs in a fringe along its underside and called it “Gumball Crossing.”

“Sometimes nature presents something to us in such an obvious manner that we just have to work with it,” Howard explained. “It’s declared by nature, it’s like ‘Hey, this is for you.’”

This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Sept. 15 at the Arboretum, located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410-634-2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for hours.

Photo: “Gum Wrapper,” made with gumballs on dead sweet gum tree, is one of Howard and Mary McCoy’s site-specific sculptures at Adkins Arboretum

“Gum Wrapper,” made with gumballs on dead sweet gum tree, is one of Howard and Mary McCoy’s site-specific sculptures at Adkins Arboretum. Photo Submitted.

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Posted in Arts, Ridgely

Adkins Arboretum offers Botanical Shoes Program on May 9, 2013

Posted on April 25, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Adkins Arboretum
RIDGELY, MD
April 24, 2013

In 1987, Lenny Wilson learned to make shoes at Cordwainer’s Technical College, a leather trades college in London. Shortly afterward, he began a career in public horticulture and was inspired to create shoes that incorporate parts of plants into their construction. Using traditional methods and materials, he unifies leather, leaves and other materials to craft unique life-size shoes.

Join Wilson at Adkins Arboretum on Thursday, May 9th for Botanical Shoes, a unique presentation during which he will share his journey, illustrate what inspires him, demonstrate how he selects plants, and relates exhibition and workshop experiences.

A native of Wilmington, Del., Wilson is the Assistant Director of Horticulture and Facilities at Delaware Center for Horticulture, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in Delaware’s diverse communities through horticulture. His one-of-a-kind shoes made from plant material are displayed in local art galleries and exhibits.

Botanical Shoes runs from 1 to 2 p.m. The program fee is $15 for members, $20 for the general public. Register at adkinsarboretum.org or call 410.634.2847, ext. 0.

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Posted in Announcement, Arts, Ridgely

Paradise Under Glass Author Ruth Kassinger to Speak May 4, 2013 at Adkins Arboretum

Posted on April 23, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Adkins Arboretum
RIDGELY, MD
April 23, 2013

Chronicle one gardener’s journey from brown thumb to green when author Ruth Kassinger presents Paradise Under Glass on Sat., May 4 at Adkins Arboretum.

Ruth Kassinger - Submitted Photo

Ruth Kassinger – Submitted Photo

Like many baby boomers in middle age, Kassinger was at an emotional crossroads. Confronted by numerous challenges, she was searching for a way forward. One cold, gray evening, flooded with thoughts of change and loss, she wandered into the U.S. Botanic Garden’s conservatory—and a dream was born. Dazzled by the vast and dense tangle of greenery, she began a quest to create a verdant sanctuary of her own at her home in suburban Washington, D.C.

In this lecture, Kassinger will take participants step by step, from the construction of her conservatory through her efforts to identify the easiest to grow, most beautiful houseplants. In chronicling her journey to create her own tropical refuge, she also provides a lively narrative tour of the glasshouses of the past, including Renaissance orangeries, the whimsical follies of Georgian England, the legendary Crystal Palace, and selected Victorian ferneries. Throughout, she shares the knowledge and insights that creating and sustaining her garden has bestowed, lessons of loss and letting go, nurturing and rebirth, challenge and change, love and serenity. Paradise Under Glass is the remarkable story of the fruition of a dream that is sure to inspire.

Kassinger’s 90-minute talk begins at 1 p.m. The program fee is $15 for members, $20 for the general public. Register at adkinsarboretum.org or by calling 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

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Posted in Arts, Environment, Event, Ridgely

Adkins Arboretum to Host Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Posted on April 14, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Adkins Arboretum
RIDGELY, MD
April 14, 2013

Celebrate spring with one of William Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies in one of the Eastern Shore’s most bucolic settings. Bring a friend! Bring a picnic! It’s funny, it’s romantic, it’s … Twelfth Night!

12N_smAdkins Arboretum will present Shore Shakespeare’s production of Twelfth Night on Sat., May 4 at 6 p.m. An encore performance will be held Sun., May 5 at 3 p.m. Both performances will be held outside in the Arboretum meadow. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own blanket or lawn chair.

A story of love and identity, trust and betrayal, Twelfth Night is a delightful comedy featuring some of the Bard’s most stirring language. The production is directed by Peter Howell and features actors and technicians from across the Mid-Shore.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets and more information may be obtained at www.adkinsarboretum.org or by calling 410-634-2847, ext. 0. Information about the production is also available at www.shoreshakespeare.com.

In the event of rain, performances will be held at the Caroline County Public Library in Denton.

Twelfth Night is the inaugural production of Shore Shakespeare, a new pan-community theatre group established to present the classic works of the theatrical repertoire and to encourage its audiences to support local community theatre all over the Shore.

Photo: In rehearsal for Shore Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio (Joseph Riley) professes love to Olivia (Avra Sullivan) while Viola (Ceci Davis) looks on. Photo courtesy of C. L. Rogers

In rehearsal for Shore Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio (Joseph Riley) professes love to Olivia (Avra Sullivan) while Viola (Ceci Davis) looks on. Photo courtesy of C. L. Rogers

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Posted in Announcement, Arts, Ridgely

New Classes at FACES

Posted on April 12, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Fiber Arts Center of the Eastern Shore
April 2013

New Classes at FACES

Painting with Thread, Intro to Knitting, Finesse your Knitting.

This April, the Fiber Arts Center of the Eastern Shore (FACES) is hosting a “Thread Painting” class with Sylvia G. Snyder, as well as Knitting courses with Sue Pilsch.

- Thread Painting is an all-day class and will teach you how to blend colors and balance your small fabric projects. The class will be held Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 from 9AM – 4PM (with hour lunch. break) for a cost of $45 and a $5 kit fee.
- “Introduction to Knitting” session includes three Monday morning classes from 9AM- 11AM for a cost of $85 on April 22nd, 29th & May 6th. If you’re already familiar with knitting.
- “Finesse Your Knitting” course for intermediate and advanced knitters. This session includes three Monday afternoon classes from 11:30AM – 1PM, April 22nd, 29th & May 6th for a cost of $75, or $35 for each individual class.

Visit http://www.fiberartscenter.com/category/current-classes/ to register for classes or for more information.

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Posted in Announcement, Arts

PaddleFest Art Exhibit Entries Needed!

Posted on April 12, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Caroline County Council of Arts
April 2012

In celebration of the fourth annual Paddlefest on the Choptank, scheduled for Saturday, May 11, 2013 from 11:00 – 4:00 p.m. (rain or shine), the Caroline County Council of Arts (CCCA) will be hosting a PaddleFest Art Exhibit.

The public is invited to submit river-themed art. Using their artistic talents, participants can carve, decorate, paint, mosaic, and/or artistically enhance any maritime item, new or salvaged – or- create a river-themed art piece of their own. Be creative and use your imagination to celebrate the Choptank River.

Individual, and team, entries of all ages will be accepted. Submissions will be sold at PaddleFest, the Community Arts Block Party, The Foundry, and Summerfest.

Registration: http://www.carolinearts.org/documents/Paddleart%202013info.pdf

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Posted in Announcement, Arts, Denton

One Hundred Footsteps, collaborative art by Jennifer Wallace and Katherine Kavanaugh, on view at Adkins Arboretum

Posted on April 6, 2013 by | Comments Off

Adkins Arboretum
RIDGELY, MD
April 6, 2013

Birdsong and spidery tree branches, the scrunch of gravel on a dirt road, and sensations of shadow and light, water and wind unfold in a collection of 50 poems and 50 collage drawings by Jennifer Wallace and Katherine Kavanaugh, on view at Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through May 31. Their collaborative project, One Hundred Footsteps, will take you deep into this world that we inhabit yet hardly notice in the rush and noise of daily life. There will be a reception on Sat., April 20 from 3 to 5 p.m. to meet the artists.

Arranged like loose pages from an unbound book on long shelves lining the walls of the Arboretum gallery, the poems and images are tiny, but their size is deceiving. Every page leads you into a wider world of awareness. Kavanaugh’s collaged fragments of soft fibrous paper, touched with orange, ochre or sooty black, are like bits of remembered landscapes. Wallace’s poems call up distinct sensations of being in a certain place in a particular state of mind.

The two women, both of Baltimore, were friends before they ever thought of collaborating. Both teach at the Maryland Institute College of Art and are very active in their fields. Kavanaugh exhibits her small works, as well as indoor and outdoor installations, in museums, universities and art centers. Wallace has published her poems, essays and photographs in many art and literary publications. Her new book of poems and photographs, It Can Be Solved by Walking, was published in 2012.

One Hundred Footsteps had its beginnings in a visit by Wallace to Kavanaugh’s studio where the artist was working on a series of tiny collages.

“So I saw these small little works,” said Wallace. “And I said, oh, these are just like my poems.”

As they talked, the two realized that they were both creating small scale works—Wallace poems a stanza or two long, Kavanaugh collage drawings not much larger than playing cards—and that both were considering the experience of living in this world with the same gentle, meditative sensibility. They decided to bring their work together as collaboration.

Because the poems and collage drawings aren’t meant to illustrate one another but share what Wallace calls a “similar gesture,” they chose the renga, a medieval Japanese poetic form, as the model for combining their work. Often 100 verses long, rengas are collaborative poems created by a pair or small group of poets, one writing a stanza, the next composing a stanza in response. Like Wallace and Kavanaugh, they focus on experiences of nature, the changing seasons and love.

Each page of One Hundred Footsteps triggers the senses and opens the mind, whether it is one of Wallace’s vivid poems, elegantly printed on a traditional letterpress, or a fragment of an image teasingly disappearing into deep stains of color in one of Kavanaugh’s collage drawings. Seamlessly, their works combine to hone awareness of the richness, beauty and resonance of living in this world. As one of Wallace’s poems says, “…anything seems possible and, guess what: anything is.”

This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through May 31 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410-634-2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.

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Posted in Arts, Environment, Ridgely

Second Saturdays: Calligraphy with Art Bounds

Posted on March 7, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Second Saturdays: Calligraphy with Art Bounds

Saturday, March 9th, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The Foundry will host a free Calligraphy demonstration as part of the Second Saturday series. Foundry artist, Art Bounds, will demonstrate the art of calligraphy, its origins, and samples of various calligraphy techniques. Contact: 410.479.1009 or www.carolinearts.org

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Posted in Arts, Denton

Friday Nites in Caroline presents Naked Blue

Posted on March 6, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Caroline County Public Library
March 2013
Denton, MD

The folk/pop team, Naked Blue, highlight the season finale of ‘Friday Nites in Caroline’ on Friday, March 22, 7:00 p.m. at Caroline County Public Library in Denton.

Drawing from the Americana tradition and firmly grounded with a pleasing pop sensibility, the performing songwriter team of Jen and Scott Smith and their band, Naked Blue have become a mainstay on the local folk/pop scene. They quit their day jobs in 1991 and have been writing, recording & performing music ever since. The strength of their songwriting and musicianship is evident in the way they easily transition between full band performances at venues like DAR Constitution Hall, The Kennedy Center & Webster Hall and acoustic shows at small intimate venues and house concerts.

‘Pop Culture Press’ states “The Baltimore-based band sticks with their folk roots, but aren’t afraid to push that sound with a lot of funk infused into tunes. “Naked Blue has that universal appeal musicians yearn for”. ‘Paste Magazine. “Naked Blue has established itself as a vital player on the folk-pop scene.” MetroBeat

Over the years they’ve shared stages with John Mayer, Joe Cocker, Jeffrey Gaines, Aimee Mann, Kenny Loggins, Dan Fogelberg, Derek Trucks Band, Jonatha Brooke, Lowen & Navarro to name just a few. Their music has been featured in film & television spots on The Young & the Restless, Brooklyn South, Jack & Jill, That’s Life, America’s Top Model, Mein Leben & Ich and in the films The Girl Next Door, About Sarah, June, Sex Drugs & Democracy, The Smokers and Second to Die. With community radio success in the U.S., Europe and the U.K. and from their past 5 releases, Naked Blue is on the road and the airwaves promoting their new CD, ‘Weightless’.

For more information contact the Library at 410-479-1343 or info@carolib.org
Friday Nites in Caroline is presented by the Caroline County Council of Arts and the Caroline County Public Library; is sponsored by Tri Gas & Oil, Best Western Denton Inn, Eastern Shore Regional Library, the Maryland State Arts Council and is FREE for all attendees.

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Posted in Arts, Denton, Event